1 How to provide access to information through the Internet and the WWW? Paul Nieuwenhuysen Vrije Universiteit Brussel Information and Library Science,

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Presentation on theme: "1 How to provide access to information through the Internet and the WWW? Paul Nieuwenhuysen Vrije Universiteit Brussel Information and Library Science,"— Presentation transcript:

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1 How to provide access to information through the Internet and the WWW? Paul Nieuwenhuysen Vrije Universiteit Brussel Information and Library Science, University of Antwerp Belgium Training Workshop of The Regional Environmental Reconstruction Programme for South Eastern Europe (RERep), in Sofia, Bulgaria, 20 June 2003

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2 The slides used in this workshop have been selected from the presentations that are available from http://www.vub.ac.be/BIBLIO/nieuwenhuysen/courses/chapters/ (note: BIBLIO and not biblio)

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4 Mixed, heterogeneous audience with different backgrounds, languages, expertise, interests. If you are an expert already, then try to assist you colleagues with less experience. If want to ask a question or want to make a remark, then just wave you hand! YOU, the audience

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5 Providing workstations for public access to information on the Internet ***-

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6 An additional method to provide access to information More and more useful information becomes available online on the Internet »free of charge »by using standard, affordable hardware »accessible by using only 1 integrated Internet client program (which includes client software for WWW, downloading by ftp,…) Therefore, offering public access to this information has become feasible in libraries and similar environments. ***-

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7 Why libraries and information centers should offer access to the Internet The links between documents in print and on CD-ROM with information on the Internet become increasingly important: »Many documents in print or on CD-ROM refer to information on Internet (or explain how to use the Internet) »Many references to printed material can be found on the Internet (in particular, in the form of bibliographic databases) Many potential users still lack the opportunity to access information on the Internet. ***-

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8 ? How to offer access to the Internet? Many questions and possible answers When you want to offer access to information on the Internet: »Many questions and problems arise. Many decisions must be made. »No standard answers exist. Optimal solutions depend on the local environment. »Everything must fit in the budget. **--

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9 ?! Questions & answers related to the workstations Use the computers available for access to »the online public access catalogue »CD-ROM products or install dedicated (better?) machines? Use reservation lists for the public Internet access workstations? Allow users to connect their own hardware to the network? **--

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10 ?! Questions & answers related to microcomputer hardware What should be the specifications of the client computers? Which video displays to install? Which spatial resolution and number of colours to use? Offer print facilities? If yes: black and white, or colours? Add speakers or headphones, or disable sound?... **--

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11 ?! Questions & answers related to server computers Where to keep the Internet client software: on each client computer or on a server in the LAN? Where to keep the WWW pages offered by the local institute: on each client computer or on a server in the LAN? When using a server computer in the LAN: use an available server (for instance of a computer centre), or install an independent server (for instance at library level)? **--

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14 ?! Questions & answers related to the installation of the browser How to set the numerous options in the WWW browser? In particular: How to set up »caching of incoming files? »the memory of visited URLs? How to make the system (browser program) return automatically back to the right, local home page? **--

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15 ?! Questions & answers related to additional software Should a telnet client be offered on the public Internet workstation? If yes, then which one? For public Internet workstations, additional software to view various types of files should be considered as candidates for installation (besides the programs that have already been incorporated in the WWW browser) **--

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23 ?! Questions & answers related to possible restrictions Offer the complete WWW or a (filtered) selection only? Offer also local access to Usenet News? If yes: to which newsgroups? Develop and implement an Internet access and fair use policy? If yes: How to make this clear to users? Allow use without supervision or supervise users to avoid misuse according to the local policy? Allow use to adults only? Restrict the time of usage per user? **--

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24 ?! Questions & answers related to electronic mail Allow the use of e-mail systems through the WWW to read and send messages? Offer one or more e-mail client software packages on the workstations (like Eudora, Netscape mail, Outlook Express…) If yes: Then how to fill in automatically the reply address and the user name? Then choose for deletion of messages from the e-mail server after downloading (and reading), or not? **--

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25 ?! Questions & answers related to marketing How to inform and attract potential users? »Distribute leaflets about the service? »Install posters about the service? »Organise classes about Internet applications? Where to place the Internet client computers within the public access area? Grouped or scattered around? How to receive feedback and evaluations?... **--

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26 ?! Questions & answers related to free or fee Charge for usage of online access facilities or not? Charge for usage of a printer or not? If yes: How to collect fees? How to make clear the distinction between information sources which are »directly accessible without passwords and free of charge »more hidden and fee-based **--

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28 ?! Questions & answers related to user guidance How to assist first-time and inexperienced users? »Offer printed leaflets? »Create and display posters near the public access PCs? »Offer help page(s) in the WWW browser software? How much effort should be spent in setting up WWW pages to guide users to information? How to optimise access for patrons with various disabilities? **--

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30 Internet access for the inexperienced user How to use hypertext / hypermedia is not understood immediately by inexperienced users, while public access computers are mainly aimed at this type of users. Therefore: »Complete blocks or phrases should be linked, instead of small parts of a page (for instance: a menu line instead of only 1 word) »Some guidance should be provided, for instance about the basics of hypertext and about saving to diskette (possibly in a separate HTML frame on the display) **--

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31 User feedback through WWW and e-mail Users should be enabled to use the system itself »To provide feedback to the manager(s) »To ask questions about the system »To make suggestions for improvement This can be done by offering a hypertext link to a URL of the mailto: type **--

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33 Why learn the basics of bitmap pictures? **** Bitmap pictures / graphics / images are often inserted in »word processing documents »presentations with slides »web pages So it is interesting to know how to acquire and improve bitmap pictures. As documents are more and more made available through the Internet, it is important to make the file sizes small while preserving an appropriate image/picture quality.

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34 How to obtain computer files with images/pictures? **** from the collection of clip art delivered with the software to create presentations from printed material (by scanning) from the WWW or an intranet (by saving to disk) by making photographs yourself …

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35 How to create digital photographs for use on computers? To obtain digitized photos to insert in your presentation file, you can »use a classical, chemical camera and digitize the results, by scanning the printed photo by using a page scanner by using a specialized scanner to scan the photo film by using the Kodak PhotoCD service through a good photo shop »use directly a digital camera ***-

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36 !? Task !? **-- You can learn the basics of digital photography by reading for instance: Curtin, Dennis P. Available from http://www.shortcourses.com/choosing/ [cited 2003]http://www.shortcourses.com/choosing/ You can learn the basics of digital photography by reading for instance: Curtin, Dennis P. Available from http://www.shortcourses.com/choosing/ [cited 2003]http://www.shortcourses.com/choosing/

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37 Software suitable to edit image files, produced by Microsoft: examples The drawing module that is available to all application programs in the suite Microsoft Office 97, 2000 The drawing module that is available to all application programs in the suite Microsoft Office XP=2002 Microsoft PhotoEditor (part of Microsoft Office 97) Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000,… NOT suitable to create appropriately compressed files saving in PowerPoint XP with Tools | Compress pictures allows appropriate compression suitable to create JPG files, but an obsolete program suitable to create JPG files; easy to use program **--Examples

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39 !? Question !? ***- Which program will YOU use to improve your digitized photos?

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40 Creating pictures on computer for printing (1) Scanning or PhotoCD or digital photography Save (lossless) as a (big) master file, for instance in TIFF format, using lossless compression such as LZW during the saving or not ***-

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45 Creating pictures on computer for a presentation or web (3) 9. Sharpen (if appropriate) (always as last step) 10. Save (lossless) (for instance in TIFF format) 11. Save as JPEG file at an appropriate level of quality or as a GIF file Finally: Insert in a document or in a slide or in a web page ***-

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46 !? Question !? ***- What is an important difference between creating pictures on computer for printing for a presentation or for a web What is an important difference between creating pictures on computer for printing for a presentation or for a web

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47 Developing web documents: guidelines related to graphics File formats used mostly on a web are GIF, JPG, PNG, because the common browsers include viewers for the file formats. For each image/picture, use an appropriate graphics file format. Graphics/images/pictures take long to download. To speed things up, compress JPG (or PNG) files to make them as small as possible, while preserving an appropriate quality. ***-

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48 !? Question !? For which applications is the GIF file format appropriate? For which applications is the JPEG/JPG file format appropriate? For which applications is the GIF file format appropriate? For which applications is the JPEG/JPG file format appropriate? ***-

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50 !? Question !? ***- Which programs do you know and which program do you use to save images as JPEG/JPG files?

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51 Maximum number of colours displayed by computers: introduction The number of colours (including shades of a colour also) that can be displayed simultaneously on a computer screen/display is limited. This limitation is primarily caused by the limitations of the video/graphics card used by your computer. **--

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53 !? Question !? What is the maximum number of colours that your computer can display simultaneously with the appropriate settings of the software? (If you do not know, then check it with the software for the display settings.) What is the maximum number of colours that your computer can display simultaneously with the appropriate settings of the software? (If you do not know, then check it with the software for the display settings.) **--

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54 Maximum number of colours displayed by computers: consequences The computer system that is asked to display a graphics file with more colours than can be displayed simultaneously by the system will »dither the image to display it with less colours »shift colours to nearby colours that the system can display The result will depend on »the type of computer, and on »the particular application software that is used to display the file. **--

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55 Developing documents for computers: guidelines related to colours Take into account / realize the limitations of computers and the variations in client computer hardware and software used to view your documents: »Do not expect that all users will view the documents that you create and publish in the same way. »See that your colours are not essential for your message. **--

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58 Developing web documents: simple programs for editing (Part 1) To create documents in HTML, you can use a simple text editor such as Windows Notepad, Windows WordPad a word processor without HTML facilities such as versions of Microsoft Word before Office 97 a word processor with HTML facilities added afterwards such as Microsoft Word from Office 95 with Microsoft Internet Assistant –continued ****

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60 !? Task !? 1. Save a hypertext page from the Internet. 2. Modify / edit this using a simple program for web page editing. 3. Save it in HTML format. 4. Check to make sure that even another web browser can view it well. 1. Save a hypertext page from the Internet. 2. Modify / edit this using a simple program for web page editing. 3. Save it in HTML format. 4. Check to make sure that even another web browser can view it well. ****

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61 !? Task !? Start a simple program to create web pages (files, documents, NOT classical pages to be printed), and create and save a very simple new page. Check if this shows up well in a web browser. Start a simple program to create web pages (files, documents, NOT classical pages to be printed), and create and save a very simple new page. Check if this shows up well in a web browser. ****

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62 !? Task !? Start a simple program to create web pages, create 2 very simple web pages, and create a hyperlink in page 1 to page 2, and a hyperlink in page 2 to page 1. for instance, name the first file 1.htm and the second file 2.htm Check if this works well in a web browser. Start a simple program to create web pages, create 2 very simple web pages, and create a hyperlink in page 1 to page 2, and a hyperlink in page 2 to page 1. for instance, name the first file 1.htm and the second file 2.htm Check if this works well in a web browser. ****

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63 !? Task !? Rename one of the files/pages that you have created, using directly your computer operating system software, but keep the file name extension as.htm for instance, rename 2.htm to b.htm See what happens in your browser when you look at file 1.htm Rename one of the files/pages that you have created, using directly your computer operating system software, but keep the file name extension as.htm for instance, rename 2.htm to b.htm See what happens in your browser when you look at file 1.htm ****

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65 !? Question !? What can the specialized programs for web site creation and maintenance do more or better than the simpler programs for web page editing? ****

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66 Programs for web site development: advanced features (Part 1) Link management to lower the risk of broken links within a web Verification of hyperlinks !! (within a web and to outside web sources) Cascading Style Sheets !! Creating reports (size and number of files, warnings,…) ! Showing the hyperlinks from any web page in a graph ! ***-

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68 Developing web sites: programs on a server In contrast with client-based programs to edit web pages and to manage web sites, some servers offer online accessible programs for these functions. This is an example of an online ASP = Application Software Provider. When using such a system, only basic, common, general editing software is required on the client to create texts, images/pictures… ***-

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69 Developing web sites: programs for content management More advanced and expensive programs for the creation and maintenance of web documents and sites offer better features for workflow, collaboration of individuals or groups or departments that build together one web site, authentication of developers and users, template design and template management to ensure consistent formats, content management. ***-

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70 The various types of webs From simple to more complicated : disk-based webs, not using a web server (for instance on a hard disk or on a CD-ROM) webs on a web server without web software extensions webs on a web server with specific web software extensions ****

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71 !? Question !? Which program will you use to edit HTML documents? ****

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72 !? Task !? Start the program that you have chosen to create a web site. Create a new web. In that web, create 2 very simple web pages, and create a hyperlink in page 1 to page 2, and a hyperlink in page 2 to page 1. For instance, name the first file 1.htm and the second file 2.htm. Save these files. Check if this works well in a web browser. Start the program that you have chosen to create a web site. Create a new web. In that web, create 2 very simple web pages, and create a hyperlink in page 1 to page 2, and a hyperlink in page 2 to page 1. For instance, name the first file 1.htm and the second file 2.htm. Save these files. Check if this works well in a web browser. ****

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73 !? Task !? Rename one of the files/pages using that program for web development, but keep the right file name extension (for instance htm); see what happens with a browser. Put one file in another folder using that program for web development and see what happens using a browser. Rename one of the files/pages using that program for web development, but keep the right file name extension (for instance htm); see what happens with a browser. Put one file in another folder using that program for web development and see what happens using a browser. ****

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74 !? Question !? Explain how a program like Microsoft FrontPage allows renaming and relocating a file or folder, in such a way that web hyperlinks are not broken. ****

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75 Programs for web site development: the problem of mixed case in a web Unix-based server computers, including web servers on such computers, make a distinction between lowercase and uppercase characters. Therefore the characters in the hyperlinks of a web running on such a server should correspond exactly to those in the source folders and files. However, some web site development programs create hyperlinks in lowercase only; for instance: FrontPage 2000 (NOT FrontPage 1997, 1998). ***-

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76 Microsoft FrontPage Web Server software Extensions If a web is server-based and if the server is using the Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions, then the functionality of the web can be extended, by adding page elements such as »hit counters, »search forms,… ***-

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77 Programs for web site development and web server software extensions Some functions of a program for web site development can result in functions on the created web pages, that require specific web server software extensions. So you should check which functions are supported and which not, by the web server that you will use to make your web pages available. Example: Microsoft FrontPage ***-

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78 Enable or disable the Server Extensions in FrontPage To ensure compatibility with servers that do not use the FrontPage Server Extensions, you can enable or disable commands that rely on the presence of the Server Extensions software on the server. If you disable the server extensions for a web, the related commands will be unavailable (that is, they will appear dimmed) on menus in FrontPage at authoring time. On the Tools menu, point to Page Options, and then click the Compatibility tab. ***-

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81 !? Task !? Problem !? Create a structure for the pages (and the links among these) of the web site that you develop. For instance: your personal WWW site. (You can use for instance a sticky note to represent each page with the name of the file written on each note and organize these on a large sheet of paper.) Create a structure for the pages (and the links among these) of the web site that you develop. For instance: your personal WWW site. (You can use for instance a sticky note to represent each page with the name of the file written on each note and organize these on a large sheet of paper.) ****

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82 !? Task !? Give good names to the files/pages of the web site that you develop and create the hierarchical structure of the (sub)directories / folders in which you will store these files. You can also use the sticky notes for this; keep in mind that each note represents a file, NOT a folder. Hint: create an index.htm file in each folder. Give good names to the files/pages of the web site that you develop and create the hierarchical structure of the (sub)directories / folders in which you will store these files. You can also use the sticky notes for this; keep in mind that each note represents a file, NOT a folder. Hint: create an index.htm file in each folder. ****

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83 !? Task !? Assume that you create a web with a simple, hierarchical structure. (for instance your personal WWW site) Then make a proposal for the organisation/structure of the corresponding computer files in folders/directories, and explain why you prefer this structure. Assume that you create a web with a simple, hierarchical structure. (for instance your personal WWW site) Then make a proposal for the organisation/structure of the corresponding computer files in folders/directories, and explain why you prefer this structure. **--

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84 !? Question !? Task !? Problem !? Show with an example of a concrete simple web site that you realize that the navigation structure of a web (the view of the user/reader/consumer) is a different concept from the folder structure of a web site (the view of the producer/author/creator)? Show with an example of a concrete simple web site that you realize that the navigation structure of a web (the view of the user/reader/consumer) is a different concept from the folder structure of a web site (the view of the producer/author/creator)? **--

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85 !? Question !? When you create a directory structure for a web site: What is the advantage of using a separate directory/folder for image files? Would you put all image files there? ***-

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87 Developing web documents: basic guidelines (Part 1) Follow most of the older, more classical guidelines applicable to the creation of non-web documents and presentations without or with hyperlinks. »Try to know your target audience, and which style of writing and structure and multimedia they prefer. »Spell accurately. Use good grammar. »Keep texts short. Be brief. Keep paragraphs short. Focus on quality, NOT on quantity. ****

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88 Developing web documents: basic guidelines (Part 2) »Make your message immediately clear. Get right to the point. Avoid long introductions. Start with the conclusion and finish with the introduction on each page. Use meaningful titles. Use a writing style similar to the one of journalists who write a newspaper article. »Highlight important keywords in the text, using bold characters for instance. ****

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89 Developing web documents: basic guidelines (Part 3) »Keep the lay-out simple. »Note the version date on the document. »Clearly identify the author. »Provide facilities for easy feedback and comments by the user/reader of your documents by mentioning your own e-mail address or another relevant e-mail address, and by providing a link of the mailto: type to your e-mail address, or (by offering a feedback form) ****

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90 Developing web documents: basic guidelines (Part 4) »Use simple language, whenever possible. Avoid abbreviations, acronyms and jargon. Spell out acronyms, at least at the first occurrence on each page. »Be clear about the copyright status of the material. »Show how the information you provide relates to other information sources existing elsewhere. »Maintain uniformity of formatting = a consistent look and feel. ****

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91 Developing web documents: basic guidelines (Part 5) »Users may start browsing and reading NOT from the home page, but from one of the sub-pages of the web; therefore each page should make sense also independent of the home page; therefore you can repeat important, basic content on several pages. »Let someone proofread and browse your web and learn from the comments to improve your creation. ****

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92 Developing web documents: basic guidelines (Part 6) »Use a fixed width font, when alignment is important (in a table for instance, when the table formatting codes of HTML/XHTML is NOT used) ****

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93 Developing web sites: guidelines related to structure (Part 1) Put yourself in the shoes of potential, inexperienced readers/users; try to imagine how they will approach the document. ***-

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94 Developing web sites: guidelines related to structure (Part 2) Strive for high scan ability, the ability to scan a page and quickly see what is available from it. Do not offer superseded or out-of-date information. Include a section highlighting new information content. When access to some information is restricted to particular users only, then indicate this. ***-

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95 Developing web sites: guidelines related to structure (Part 3) Structure your information to take advantage of the hypertext environment; do not put everything on 1 page; break into pieces which can stand on their own, and link to the other pieces; however, avoid exaggeration which leads to scattered information which is hard to collect and/or print. ***- Good for printing...Middle ground...Good for surfing

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96 Developing web sites: guidelines related to hyperlinking (1) Try to make clear (announce in advance) what will happen when a reader/user will activate a link. Include a warning, when a link leads to a large file. Try to make it easy to understand a link by linking a clear concept or a sentence (and not only words here and there). Avoid using underlines like this that do not indicate hyperlinks, because this may confuse the users. Do not offer links to documents lacking information or under construction. ***-

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97 Developing web sites: guidelines related to hyperlinking (2) Do not use click here for links (because not everyone uses a mouse and because you cannot mention this at every link anyway) You can indicate hyperlinks in the text for instance as »to more about THIS subject »to more about THAT subject »... ***-

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98 Developing web sites: guidelines related to hyperlinking (3) Make clear where the links are on a page. Try to avoid putting hyperlinks in an image, because it is less clear than a conventional underlined text. If you use links in images anyway, because this adds value, then make clear to the user which images or parts of images are hyperlinks, and which are not, to avoid that the user does not find all useful hyperlinks. Avoid broken / dead links = avoid link rot. ***-

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100 Developing web sites: guidelines related to the context Clearly identify the host institution, by providing a link to its welcome page. Clearly identify dates (for instance: origin, expiration, most recent update). Clearly identify »which information is local (created by you or your institution) »which is mirrored (copied) from another site »which is a link to another site ***-

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101 !? Question !? Which guidelines should we have in mind, when we create a URL for a web page? In other words: How does an ideal URL look like? or: Which kind of URL to avoid? Which guidelines should we have in mind, when we create a URL for a web page? In other words: How does an ideal URL look like? or: Which kind of URL to avoid? ***-

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102 Developing web sites: guidelines related to the URL (Part 1) Try to create URLs with words that approximate natural language, so that they are »meaningful and informative for users »easy to remember by users »helpful in retrieval through search engines that index your site and that offer results with relevance ranking ***-

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103 Developing web sites: guidelines related to the URL (Part 2) Try to have short URLs, so that users do NOT have to »remember long URLs »type a long URL in their browser (This is of course directly related to the folder / directory / path structure of your web site.) ***-

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105 Developing web sites: guidelines related to the URL (Part 4) For each of your pages, consider writing the URL of the page somewhere at the end of that page (because saving or printing does not always register the URL, so that it may be difficult for the user to find the page back on the network or to give the URL to someone else) ***-

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107 Developing web sites: guidelines related to accessibility (2) Avoid moving your files to another »folder / directory or »server computer. If you move a file anyway, then replace it with a small file with the same name, that is almost empty and small, that links to the new location. ***-

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108 Developing web sites: guidelines related to accessibility (3) Include an index.html file in each folder / directory in your web site, if you want to offer some information when a user takes the directory name (and not a file name) as a URL of the type http://server_computer/directory/subdirectory/ http://server_computer/directory/subdirectory/ Do not use index.htm (without l at the end), because not all web servers send this as default document. ***-

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109 Developing web sites: guidelines related to accessibility (4) Consider to include spelling variations of each address (URLs) (folder or file) to increase the chance that users get to the site when they type in a URL. Then make that they all point to the one and only real folder or file. For instance: //webserver/african-art//webserver/african-arts //webserver/african art//webserver/african arts //webserver/african_art//webserver/african_arts //webserver/africanart//webserver/africanarts ***-

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112 !? Question !? For which hyperlinks in your web pages do you use absolute linking, and for which relative linking? Why? ***-

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113 !? Question !? When developing a web site, we should use as much as possible relative links. But in which case do we use absolute links in our web sites? When developing a web site, we should use as much as possible relative links. But in which case do we use absolute links in our web sites? ***-

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114 !? Task !? Use the program that you have chosen for HTML/XHTML editing, and create a page that includes graphics. ***-

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115 !? Task !? 1. Use a program to save some existing page that includes graphics from the web. 2. Inspect your hard disk to check if all the required files were saved indeed. 1. Use a program to save some existing page that includes graphics from the web. 2. Inspect your hard disk to check if all the required files were saved indeed. ***-

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116 !? Question !? Which are the most widely used file formats for graphics on a web? ***-

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117 !? Task !? Check for each of the images in your web pages, that the HTML/XHTML code does not force the browser to change the display size of the image. ***-

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118 Developing web documents: guidelines related to icons Avoid icons and other elements that look like buttons to activate links, but which are NOT. Add explanations to icons which may not be directly clear to the reader/user. ***-

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119 Developing web documents: guidelines related to multimedia (1) A page can contain an element or a link to an element that can NOT be displayed / accessed by all browsers with common settings. Examples: »JavaScript, Java, Dynamic HTML, »BMP, TIF, PDF, RTF, PPT, PPS, »AVI, MP3, MPG, »VRML,… ***-

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120 Developing web documents: guidelines related to multimedia (2) When required, indicate on the web page, that access to the information or service requires »a specific setting of the options (and explain which one), or »a specific browser (and indicate where this can be obtained), or »a recent version of a browser (and indicate where this can be obtained), or »an additional type of software (and indicate where this can be obtained), or … ***-

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122 Developing web documents: guidelines related to frames To lay out text on a page, you can use tables instead of frames. You can use frames for the things that can only be done using frames, and for nothing else: For instance, to obtain individual scrollable regions on 1 page. (So that for example you can have instructions stay fixed, at the left but the large document on the right can scroll.) ***-

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124 Developing web documents: difficulties with frames (1) Avoid in most cases creating pages with frames, for the following reasons: »It is not always clear what will be the result of printing. »To print the contents of a particular frame, that one has to be clicked / indicated / selected, before invoking the print command, and that is not known by all users. »Accessibility for disabled users that do not use a normal, common graphical browser can be hindered. ***-

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125 Developing web documents: difficulties with frames (2) »Navigating by using forward and backward can be confusing with frames. »Less normal screen space is available for the message. »Scrolling requires that the right / relevant part / frame of the page is clicked / indicated / selected first. »Pages with frames cannot be displayed and edited well by all programs that can handle pages without frames. ***-

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126 Developing web documents: difficulties with frames (3) »Search engines cannot or do not always index all pages in frames. »Jumping to a linked file from a framed display, displays the new file often in the same framed structure. That can be annoying and confusing. »The contents of small frames as planned by the creator/designer can be messed up by variations in font size or display resolution determined by the user /client. ***-

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127 Developing web documents: difficulties with frames (4) »The URL/address displayed can be less informative than when no frames are used. »Referring/linking to a particular page directly or copying its URL is not always possible when it is part of a site in which frames are used. »Creating a bookmark to some pages with frames is not as easy as creating a bookmark to a normal page without frames. ***-

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128 Developing web documents: difficulties with frames (5) »When a user enters an interior page directly (without seeing the other frames) from for instance a link offered by a search engine, the this may be confusing and may hinder further navigation. ***-

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129 !? Question !? Which methods do you know to assure the uniformity of the appearance of related web pages? ***-

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130 !? Task !? Learn about Cascading Style Sheets from the online help pages of the software package that you use to create web pages, and apply an external style sheet in your web site to increase the uniformity of the appearance of all related pages. **--

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131 !? Question !? If a web page is formatted with an external style sheet (that is --by definition-- stored in a separate file), then what happens with the formatting when you save such a page to your microcomputer? Is the formatting kept with the page? If yes, then where is it stored? If a web page is formatted with an external style sheet (that is --by definition-- stored in a separate file), then what happens with the formatting when you save such a page to your microcomputer? Is the formatting kept with the page? If yes, then where is it stored? **--

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132 !? Question !? How can we increase the chance that our WWW pages will be found by potential readers who use an Internet search engine? ***-

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133 Developing web documents: guidelines related to web indexes (1) Ensure that your site will be retrieved by a greater number of WWW searchers who use search engines. In other words: Design your site in such a way that the likelihood of its being indexed accurately will be high. It is good to keep several guidelines for this in mind. ***-

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134 Developing web documents: guidelines related to web indexes (2) »Use meaningful names for the folders and files in the URL for each of your WWW pages. »Place vital information as a HTML/XHTML-heading towards the top of the page. »Create a meaningful HTML/XHTML-title for each of your WWW pages. (That is the content of the Title tag.) Note that dynamically generated pages from a database or contents management system have no meaningful URL in many cases. ***-

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135 Developing web sites: guidelines related to web indexes (3) »Include synonyms of significant words and narrower terms in your web pages. »Add keywords in another relevant language to your web pages. »Do NOT include vital information exclusively in parts that will not be read by most search engines: in graphics, image maps; in video; in Flash animations;… ***-

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136 Developing web documents: guidelines related to web indexes (4) »Structure the document so that each of the popular WWW indexes presents an interesting, useful, clear summary of your document when it is retrieved in a search. Some WWW indexes present the first lines of the page, others present your keywords in the context of the page. »Try to receive hyperlinks to your pages from other and famous, high-quality pages. Then Internet search engines will probably rank your WWW pages higher in the result sets that they present. ***-

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137 !? Task !? Try to find a program that can analyse your web site and that can report about the results; apply this program and learn from the report how to improve your site (by eliminating files and pages that take long to download, by eliminating broken links…). For instance Microsoft FrontPage offers such features. Try to find a program that can analyse your web site and that can report about the results; apply this program and learn from the report how to improve your site (by eliminating files and pages that take long to download, by eliminating broken links…). For instance Microsoft FrontPage offers such features. ***-

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138 Developing web sites: content accessibility The content of web pages should also be accessible by users with physical disabilities. More information on this issue is given by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) http://www.w3.org/WAI/http://www.w3.org/WAI/ Testing the accessibility of the content of a web page is possible free of charge through http://www.cast.org/bobby/ http://www.cast.org/bobby/ ***-

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142 Developing web sites: placing documents on a web server To make your documents/pages/site available through the web, you place them on a web server »at your Internet Service Provider outside your organisation, or »on a server managed within your organisation, for instance by the computer centre or within your department »on another server, such as http://geocities.yahoo.com/home/ http://geocities.yahoo.com/home/ ***-

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143 Developing web sites: which web server to use? When you must decide which web server to use, consider »costs »support »continuous, permanent availability; good maintenance »fast access from your institute OR your region OR from other parts of the world? »absence of advertisements inserted by the servers company on your web pages »… ***-

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144 Developing web sites: how to place documents on a web server? The exact procedure to place your documents on a web server depends on the particular server. So, you should follow the instructions given to you by YOUR web server manager. Making a copy of your files from your pc to the server is of course always involved, in some way or another. ***-

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145 Developing web sites: software to copy/publish a web To publish/export/transfer/copy/move a web, you can use »the export or publish function of your web site development program »an ftp program »... ***-

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146 !? Task !? Learn to copy (in one action) a few files to a remote computer from your own computer, using ftp. Then you can use this method for instance to upload your web pages to a web server computer. Learn to copy (in one action) a few files to a remote computer from your own computer, using ftp. Then you can use this method for instance to upload your web pages to a web server computer. ***-

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147 !? Question !? Why is it important to preserve all directory structures and directory names, when you copy a set of web pages from your development environment to a web server? ***-

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148 !? Task !? 1. Copy your web site to a web server, but keep it unavailable for public access. 2. Test. 3. Publish your web site = make it accessible for your public. 1. Copy your web site to a web server, but keep it unavailable for public access. 2. Test. 3. Publish your web site = make it accessible for your public. ***-

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149 Developing web sites: increase the visibility of your site In some cases, people who know only approximately the URL of your web site, will perhaps use a spelling variation of a term in the real URL. Therefore, you can include additional URLs in you web site with names that contain spelling variations of the real URL. Make these point / link to the real URL. Example: http://www.computer.com/.../photos/ http://www.computer.com/.../fotos/ … http://www.computer.com/.../photos/ http://www.computer.com/.../fotos/ ***-

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150 Developing web sites: advertise your web site To let people know about your WWW site, you can mention the address (URL) on your standard stationary that is used to send classical letters mention the address (URL) in the signature that you place automatically in your e-mail messages send e-mail messages to individuals or mailing lists announcing your new web site or changes distribute classical brochures mentioning your web site request related web sites to include a hyperlink to your web site ***-

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151 !? Task !? Search for the documents that you developed using the most popular WWW indexes; consider the quality of the presented summaries of these documents; try to improve the summaries by changing your documents. ***-

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152 Developing web sites: maintenance and improvements Maintenance means here maintenance of »contents »hyperlinks in the documents »development software »hardware (the development computer) Who will be responsible for maintenance? On which development computer(s) will maintenance be carried out? ***-

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153 Developing web sites: monitoring the usage statistics (1) See that you can access a log of the accesses to your web pages to monitor the usage of your pages, by exploiting the facilities provided by your server, or an external service, to which your page is linked ***-

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155 !? Question !? How does nedstat and similar systems work? In other words: What is the underlying mechanism that makes it possible for these systems to offer usage data? **--

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156 !? Question !? The number of requests received by a web server are recorded in the usage statistics. Why does such a log NOT accurately reflect the absolute, real number of pages viewed by users? **--

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160 Developing web sites: monitoring links to your pages (2) We can use some of the general WWW search engines, (for instance AltaVista, Google) to search for WWW pages that contain a hyperlink to one or our pages. This can learn us »how many and which pages link to our pages, and »how this popularity evolves over time ***-

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161 !? Task !? Check which pages in the WWW contain a link to one of the pages of your WWW site. ***-

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162 Web site evaluation: an example See for instance The Library Web Manager's Reference Center http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/RefCenter/ ***-Example Have a look at this professional WWW page, make some critical remarks and suggestions for improvement.

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163 Web site evaluation: an example See for instance The Library Web Manager's Reference Center http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/RefCenter/ ***-Example Suggestions for improvement: 3 news sections instead of 1 may be confusing font size cannot be changed, which can cause poor readability 4 menus instead of 1 may be confusing some text is not shown completely it is not directly clear what is a hyperlink and what not Suggestions for improvement: 3 news sections instead of 1 may be confusing font size cannot be changed, which can cause poor readability 4 menus instead of 1 may be confusing some text is not shown completely it is not directly clear what is a hyperlink and what not

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165 ***- Creating documents for both printing and computer-based distribution Many documents should be distributed by using the classical form of printed material, as well as by using more recent methods based on computers and networks, for instance »through the WWW, »through an intranet, »on CD-ROM,...

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166 ***- Creating documents: which software to use? For the distribution based on computers, hypermedia based on HTML/XHTML are increasingly used. These documents can be read/viewed by using one of the common, popular Internet browsers (programs). Ideally, the application software used to create both types of documents should be »already known by the document creators, or easy to learn »available free of charge, or already available to create documents anyway, or cheap to buy

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168 ***- Creating documents: problems with the ideal scheme Which application software is available today that can produce the ideal, neutral, well-structured, computer- based master-document, that forms the ideal basis »for later printing as well as »for distribution using computers and networks? Can such an ideal computer program exist? Which file format is suitable for such a master document: SGML? XML? An advanced version of HTML/XHTML? A proprietary format? A combination of all these?

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169 ***- XML = eXtended Markup Language Developed by a working group of the World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C) A subset of the Standard Generalised Markup Language (SGML) Still evolving Requires an XML capable browser to view/interpret documents marked-up with XML

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170 ***- XML versus SGML and HTML XML is simpler than SGML XML is more powerful and complex than HTML XML allows the creation of documents that contain more meta-information, more structure than HTML (for instance in documents generated from databases) XML is better than HTML in allowing a separation of »content »structure / lay-out / display format »semantics / context / meaning of parts of the content

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172 ***- Creating documents as both print-outs and hypermedia: conclusion A simple and cheap solution does not exist (yet). As a consequence, in practice, in many cases, the same information is now stored in 2 ways: »using 1 file format for 1 program in a combination that is good in printing »as HTML/XHTML + GIF + JPG +... files for distribution through the WWW or an intranet or on CD-ROM

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173 ***- Creating documents as both print-outs and hypermedia: conclusion In comparison with managing the information in only 1 document version, using 2 document versions - requires more expertise - costs more work to create the documents initially - requires double work in the case of changes in contents - causes the danger of differences in the contents, in the message of the 2 document versions (for instance: prices, dates, regulations,...)

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175 !? Question !? What are disadvantages of placing information on your WWW site in the form of PDF files? ***-

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176 !? Question !? When we want to make information available through a web, in which case then should we consider putting this in the form of a PDF file? ***-

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177 ***- Creating documents as both print-outs and hypermedia: XML XML is a recent file format which is better suited than classical word processing formats and than HTML to create master documents that can be printed well and that can be made available through the web for browsers.

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178 !? Question !? Task !? Problem !? Save a document file in HTML/XML format, using for instance Microsoft Word 2000 or a more recent version. Load it in a web browser, look at the result and view the source of the HTML/XML page; or view the HTML source directly in Word. See that some information is saved not in the form of HTML codes, but with XML codes. Give examples of what is saved with XML. Save a document file in HTML/XML format, using for instance Microsoft Word 2000 or a more recent version. Load it in a web browser, look at the result and view the source of the HTML/XML page; or view the HTML source directly in Word. See that some information is saved not in the form of HTML codes, but with XML codes. Give examples of what is saved with XML. ***-

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179 ***- Creating documents as both print-outs and hypermedia: future Recent generations of common office software packages are better in creating hypermedia based on advanced HTML / XML in converting documents to HTML / XML hypermedia in integrating word processing with a more specialized program for web creation and maintenance in viewing and creating documents formatted according to advanced HTML or XML (with more advanced structures and formats)